Campus News

Day of Giving tops $50,000 to support student scholarship

Day of Giving tops $50,000 to support student scholarship

Free frozen treats added fun to the day, thanks to the generous support of a donor.

On Wednesday, April 26, Rockford University held its third annual Day of Giving. Through social media and email outreach, alumni and community members again came together in a unique way with tremendous impact. This year’s Day of Giving supported Rockford University’s participation in the Rubin Education Challenge.

Tracing back to December 2015, Rockford University and the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) announced the University’s participation in the Rubin Education Challenge, a challenge grant offered by CFNIL to build scholarship endowments benefiting local students with financial need. Together, Rockford University and CFNIL will build a $3 million endowment, with CFNIL matching every dollar contributed by the University’s donors to the fund by January 2018. The program is named after Dr. Louis and Violet Rubin whose $24.5 million gift to CFNIL made the matching endowments possible.

During this year’s effort, the Rockford University community raised $25,600! Combined with the match from the CFNIL, our Day of Giving realized more than $51,000 towards the University’s participation in the Rubin Education Challenge. This amazing feat would not have been possible without the dedication and support of our alumni and community members.

To date we have raised just under $1 million; with the CFNIL match that makes $2 million. We are continuing with efforts to raise the remaining $500,000. Every gift makes a direct impact, creating opportunity for students who may not be able to consider a college education without a scholarship!

If you’d like contribute to the Rubin Challenge, with an outright gift/pledge, or if you are 70½ years or older and would like to make a tax free distribution from your IRA (see pg. 27), please feel free to use the envelope enclosed in this issue, noting the Rubin Challenge Fund. Thank you for being a Rock Solid Regent!